I posted this on the lever BB too. I picked up a beautiful Savage 99C in 308 with a muzzle brake & 3 mags yesterday. I was hunting a deer gun for a young left-handed friend when I found the 99 in an estate sale. Lefty decided on a new bolt gun. I had wanted a 99 so badly when I was in college I couldn't resist this one and bought it for myself. The gun is marked Model 99C series A and the serial# B017335. It's got a great trigger and carries a Redfield 3x9 on Weaver mounts. I feel like I've stepped into a time machine. Now if I can only get my hair and some of my knee cartilledge back...
So what is the twist rate?
What factory ammo/bullet wt. do you experienced lever shooters recommend for whitetail inside 200 yrds?
Will it shoot the new reduced recoil .308 ammo well?
What else should I have asked?

Hello,
Without looking it up in reference book, would guess the twist is either 1/10 or most likely 1/12" For all practical purposes either will work just fine in a sporting rifle. Remington usually uses a 10 twist, but most others will use a 12 twist. Again for hunting purposes shoot whatever you want bullet weight wise and can only imagine the rifle will perform very nicely. Those 99's are a unique and fine hunting rifle and there is quite a following of them and many consider them a classic sporting arm. You may want to do a search on the inventor for he was quite an intersting fellow and it is said that upon introducing his rifle and no immediate sales, Mr. Savage was upset and he went to personally visit those he was attempting to sell the rifle and confronted them and inquired why in the world would anyone refuse to buy his product!! In that day with the calibers of 22HP, 250-3000, 300 Savage, combined with the features/design of the 99, it represented "state of the art." The 308 version you have is an excellent combination.

IMO the .308 will handle 180 grains quite nicely but not any more than that.....I've taken deer with my M-99 in .308 using 180 grains but have taken a lot more using 150 grains. You could opt for the 165 as well.......any of them work well in the short distances you mention and 200 yards is short for the .308! It'll easily handle 300!

A word of caution here.....as nice a rifle (and accurate too) as the M-99 is....it's not beastly strong like a bolt action and should not be reloaded like a bolt.....IMO the action is maxed out with the hi-pressured .308 cartridge. Keep reloads conservative when loading for the Savage lever gun or simply buy the factory ammo. It don't take a lot to kill deer so just about any factory ammo and 150 grains of bullet works very well.....choose core-lokts or Winchester power points or even the federal sure shoks....any of them will get-er-done.

I went to a bolt gun many years ago because of personal reasons but loved the lever guns and would still be using the M-99.....it's still here.....a presentation grade and looks like the day it came from the factory in 1958. I used it in Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wyoming so it's been around and shot a few deer and a few varmints as well. It's about as stylish as one can get in the northern woods....a very fine addition to any hunter's gun cabinet.

I ordered a copy of Douglas Murray's 'The 99' yesterday afternoon so I hope I can get the approximate production date and twist of my 99 rate out of that when it comes, but if anyone knows for sure I could get started. I bought three boxes of military surplus 147 gr. stuff just to give me something to shoot in the interim, but I want to work out a good hunting round. The only reason I think of the 99 as inside 200 yrd.s is that I've got a .270 and 7mm Mag set up for the longer shots scope-wise and will probably use one of them instead when I hunt where I think longer shots are likely.